Incentives for community participation in the governance and management of common property resources: the case of community forest management in Nepal

Devolution of resource management access rights, from the state to local communities, has been an important policy tool in Nepal over the last two decades. One of the major goals of this policy is to increase the participation of local users in decision-making and for them to gain benefits from the forests. However, a lack of meaningful participation amongst users in resource governance has resulted in a failure to include socially marginalised groups in community decision-making. The main objective of this research is to explore what incentives are most likely to enhance the effective participation of local users in the governance and management of common property resources. In this study of community forestry management regimes in Nepal, access to resources and benefits, and enforcement of legal property rights are identified as the key influential incentives that determine the effective participation of users in resource governance. This study proposes proportional allocation of the most productive part of a community forest to a sub-group (formed within a user group) of the poor and disadvantaged members, and the transference and enforcement of legal property rights to this sub-group over the allocated forest, in order to protect their access rights to resources and to secure their greater participation in resource governance.